"Hotter than a bastard"*

Team Woodside's final weekend in Oz was spent on Rottnest Island. This is a lovely, quiet, underrated place a few km off the coast from Perth. No cars, few people, remarkable weather, spectacular beaches, a great road/cycle track circumnavigating the island and a real unspoiled feel. The principal inhabitants of the island are little marsupials known as Quokkas. These mini-kangaroos make themselves quite at home in the pub and restaurants. One of them, apparently named Roger, stole Winky's beer whilst his vision temporarily blurred as a result of the drubbing the Australian Rugby team were experiencing at the hands of the Springboks on the pub TV (Eddie and George - you've let me down once too often - it's enough to make a BLOKE switch allegiances back to the All-Blacks. Grrr.). The days were spent cycling, swimming and relaxing. On the Sunday L,M and W went scuba diving to check out the local marine life. All highly recommended.

On the way back to the Old Dart, most of the Woodside team took a little stopover in Dubai . Our non-exsistent corporate expense account didn't stretch to a stay in the hotel pictured, although we did drop by for a look. Quite a remarkable place. As for the hotel we did stay in...well let's just say it wasn't quite as photogenic. We swam in the tea-warm crystal clear Arabiam Gulf, sought respite in the fiercely air-conditioned shopping malls, took a little cruise on Dubai Creek (photo is of the golf course clubhouse - an oasis for expats?) and generally basked in the more-than-ample heat.

We rode the endless dunes in a 4x4 to an Arabian feast in the desert, complete with mud-like coffee, shisha, henna (for the girls), camel riding, kebabs and belly dancing.
Food and drink in Dubai is great. Fresh juices and kebabs that put the Botley Road kebab van in perspective.

The team is now in Oxford working "hard" to tidy up the SCP submission. All good fun.

We hope all of you guys had a fun summer like we did. Thankyou to those teams who contributed to the blog. We hope you enjoyed reading the posts as much as we did. See you round Oxford, guys. Take care.

*winky will buy a pint for the first person to place the quote

European Summer

Team Infineon has been ridiculously busy in Munich. So many beer gardens, so little time. So many beautiful nearby cities too, which migh explain why you haven't heard from us. Here are some pics of our summer. Lots of stories to swap back in Oxford!


There was a sunny day somewhere in the beginning... we spent it in the English Garden with lots of beer.....

Dinner in Marienplatz ....




Schloss Neuschwanstein near Austrian border...



Hofbrauhaus - very good beer...


Up in the Alps at Hitler's hideaway. 4 degrees at the top!!




But such a nice view....






Off to Prague for a bit of culture.... this is where Mozart's Don Giovanni premiered 230 years ago..... we caught one of the shows. Awesome....

Then spent some time getting lost in the biggest castle in Europe, seen on top of the hill below....








This is a weird little church in Kutna Hora, outside Prague - decorated with human bones....




Czech beer is very good and may even be better than German beer...







A stint in Salzburg..... in the rain....




And a fast car for the Autobahn...


The life in Munich has been good here.... !!







By the way, when do we have to submit?! :-P

now that's a bunch of hot air

Did you know that Bristol is home to the largest ‘balloon fiesta’ in the world? Well, neither did I until I looked out my skylight window and a hot air balloon was flying nearly two meters above my flat…and then two and then three..four! Later in the evening thousands gathered for the 'nightglow' which entailed fire glowing balloons lighted up in sync with musical rhythms.


It was quite a sight because my flat is a conversion of an old church and some of the windows are stained glass (we even have a saint still on the roof above our kitchen--see pics). Well, that’s the word in Bristol. Random acts of kindness still occurring left and right here, too.

Its great to hear the stories of everyone's adventures in the blog. Happy Birthday to both Lionel and Michael today!

Phong “The Dean” Dinh and Barbie “Doll” Finn come to Berlin, drink a lot of Gin, and leave with a grin

It was fun for a weekend to leave aside the hard working, mildly responsible ‘internship Pedro’ and remember the more relaxed, care free, borderline alcoholic Oxford version. Still, the task ahead of me was monumental. It is not easy to show the uniqueness of Berlin to our North American friends in a weekend.

Unlike other big cities, Berlin is still in a very fluid state. Everything is still coming together. Politically, it is again the capital of what, in many aspects, is a new country and where politics still stir a passion that is foreign to any ‘western’ European country.

Socially, people are moving in and out as some follow their companies as they set up shop in the new capital, and others move ‘west’ in search of opportunities. The unemployment is rampant, but due to a generous welfare system nobody goes without decent housing, schooling, or healthcare, which means low crime and a great deal of free time. This welfare system (and what are still pretty decent salaries for unqualified jobs) is attracting the masses of immigrants that are indispensable to make any city remotely interesting.

This sense of ‘empty canvas’ coupled with dirt cheap rents and a generous welfare state has attracted all sorts of creative, but alas less wealthy, young artists who cannot afford London or NY. The result is a sizzling cultural activity, always fresh and provocative (or thought provoking if you prefer). More than going back to Brecht, Bach, or Beckmann the cultural scene in Berlin is all about taking you one step further. In my street, for instance, an impromptu second-hand-book-dealer-cum-young-writer’s-hideout sprung up in a in a vacant shop. Shop windows turned into art galleries are the norm in other ‘poorer’ parts of town.

In a nutshell, nothing is cast in stone. What is happening in Berlin now will only have a word ended in –ism to describe it in a couple of years. For the time being that –ism is what you make of it.

Still, with the help of a bottle of Gin (did not make it past Saturday needles to say), copious amounts of beer and the odd kebab I was able to give our friends a good flavour of what Berlin is about.

They got to see Berlin from atop the Fernsehturm (CN tower for Barb, she is still finds it hard to grasp the concept of Television towers being built outside Canada). Followed by a dinner with the Zalotas (all three of them) in restaurant where every dish was made with potatoes (take note Declan).

They had a small menu dégustation of Kristall, Hefe and Dunkel (the three main types of Weissbier) in Potsdamer Platz. Previously a no man’s land dissected by the wall, Potsdamer Platz is now a state of the art business/entertainment complex and a good example of the period of optimism felt in the early 90's that is now long gone.

We walked along a remaining part of the wall in the history laden banks of the Spree, while focusing all our attention on spotting VW Beatles that would allow us to punch each other in the arm (don’t ask me why, these guys are plain nuts)

To the embarrassment of Barb, we proudly cycled down Unter den Linden to the Brandenburg gate, in a 6 seat bike. Highly recommend the experience. The ride itself is sub-par and it distracts you from the main avenue in Berlin. But the expression of fear and disbelief in the face of the hapless tourists makes it all worth while.

All in all it was a nice weekend fraught with drinking, history, puns, and overall clean, wholesome fun. But, alas, it takes more than a weekend to fall in love with Berlin.

Best

JPJ

Random thoughts and philosophical questions

Should a Weissbier tasting start with Kristal and end in Dunkel (i.e. from the lightest to the heaviest), or should it go the other way around?

There is no ‘H’ in ‘bender’. (Barb Finn, ladies and gentleman, the guardian of orthography)

Jorma Ollila is an anagram of “all major oil”. Look out for a new Dan Brown bestseller.

The last comma in the title is called an Oxford comma. Its use is often a point of contention but, given its name, I decided to include it.

Thongs are not a peaceful topic. But apparently they are falling out of fashion.

The internet is gaining all the characteristics of a pantheistic deity. Discuss, without mentioning Matrix or Keanu Reeves (Star Wars is acceptable though).

Infoscions in the New York Times

A shameless plug, especially since no Oxford students are mentioned in the article, but the New York Times published an article about the summer program we are in here at Infosys.

link

Infoscions Tour Around India

Life on Infosys campus has been downright
suburban...feels very much like the U.S., as intended to appeal to the predominantly American clientele. Assimilated Infoscions that we are, we've finally taken to the vegetarian food and Teen Idol-type shows the company puts on. Last winner...a Michael Jackson impersonator.



Whenever not on campus, we take a courtesy cab into town...a 17km ride that takes over an hour. The traffic here is worse than Bangkok, Sao Paulo, and dare we say it, London. Hence, the taxi drivers here are hoping to be discovered as the next Michael Schumacher, blazing through gridlock in their V2-engined minicars. At one point, we were literally driving underneath a truck. Solution: don't look forward when in the car, and never take the shotgun seat...which often has seatbelts that don't work.

Not to say we don't go out very much. Back-to-back nights to celebrate Roy's and Declan's birthdays put our livers into intensive care.

Nevertheless, Declan and Achint have vowed to take the scalp of every pub in Bangalore in addition to those in Oxford.

The Biodiesel team came to visit back in July. Curious as to why there were only three of them. Evidently, Alex decided that 4 days was enough in India and decided to go back to Europe.

In the meantime, we've been skipping town every weekend to go to a different destination. A coffee plantation converted to a health spa, Bombay to experience what flooding from a monsoon can be like, Pondicherry to get a taste of Franco-Indian culture (and get beef for the first and only time in India...damn really could use a steak right now).













Last of all, went to the southwest coast to Kerala to have a pleasure cruise and have a nice swim and massage and the five-star Taj resort.

Ah..yes, we're are living in squalid conditions. The pampering you get with those ayurvedic massages are just too relaxing. <:Op And who can eat king prawns the size of lobsters? Next up, the Taj Mahal and a trip to the palace on a lake in Udaipur. Perhaps we can play baccarat there ala James Bond? So sad that the summer is passing so fast. Hope everyone is doing well. For more pictures, click HERE.

A whale of a Time

The weekend was another good one for Team Woodside.

Friday night, Leanne had her first taste of Kangaroo at a local pub. She was disappointed that it wasn't one she had killed herself but nevertheless pronounced it "very tasty".

On Saturday, Leanne and Winky cycled to Cottesloe for a fish and chips lunch & a bit of hanging about on the beach.

Saturday night the Team watched the Fremantle Dockers thump the Richmond Tigers at Subiaco Oval. A match of consequence (and some spite, as it turned out) with both teams vying for a place in the finals. (If you don't know what sport we are talking about, well - we're not surprised - it's a quirky antipodean pastime - see: AFL - an idiot's guide )

Sunday was spent lolling about on the vast Indian Ocean as we cruised the offshore reefs, looking for dinner. One of our team, cognisant of his predilection for "feeding the fish" had decided not to join us. The wind chop against the swell in the morning meant that at least one other team member perhaps wished for a while that he'd done the same and stayed on dry land. Indeed, his face matched the colour of the ocean for a bit. The chop died down, the sun came out and fish started to bite. We caught enough for a couple of dinners and were heading home happy. Then the real show began...


On the cruise back to the harbour, we were lucky enough to be visited by a pod of 4 whales - a mum and baby and a pair of big fellas. We hung with them for ages in a now-calm ocean and lovely blue skies. A nice moment that made us feel very fortunate to be suffering the Perth "winter".

Cheers from the Woodside Team.

A few more photos HERE